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The Schleswig-Holstein Question.

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It is unfortunate that the first views of European questions are gained in America through the English press. We have all had full opportunity of testing the untrustworthiness and the malignant falsehood of the leading English journals with regard to American questions. Why should we expect greater accuracy or honesty with respect to continental? It is a pleasing habit of the London journalists to speak of the Schleswig-Holstein question as a kind of intellectual "muddle" -- a purely technical dispute -- under cover of which the German Powers are trying to despoil a weak state of her principal provinces. The facts are quite otherwise, and, as the question may at any moment inaugurate a European war, they ought to be understood by all intelligent men.

The case is simply this: By innumerable laws and compacts, dating back at least five centuries, the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein are independent sovereign States, in a "personal union" with Denmark, as Hungary was with Austria, but under their own Constitution, and separate from Denmark. The two form one Power, under the same Prince (hitherto) as Denmark. One of them (Holstein) is also a member of the German Confederacy. An order of succession is also established in the most solemn manner since 1650, giving the government of the Duchies to the next male heir of the reigning Duke. With the recent death of King FREDERICK, the last male of the royal house of Oldenburg had passed away, and the Duchies would now, according to their ancient laws and their own desires, become separated from their "personal union" with Denmark, as Hanover, in 1837, was separated from Great Britain. The legitimate heir and claimant, who is about to sustain his claims by force, is the Prince of Augustenburg; and were the divisions of Europe to be determined solely by law or by the wishes of the people, the Kingdom of Denmark would this year virtually come to its end.

But there are other parties who have an interest in this little Kingdom. Her importance in the eyes of Europe is, that she holds the keys of the Baltic. Whatever Continental State possesses her can become a formidable naval Power. Russia covets those harbors which would give her a naval station, and open a way for her fleets, even in Winter, to the Atlantic. Prussia and the German Confederacy are struggling continually toward the sea, and Kiel would make them naval Powers. France and England are, of course, opposed to these aspirations, and are, therefore, in favor of the undivided Kingdom of Denmark, as a bulwark at the entrance of the Baltic to its more powerful neighbors.

Eleven years ago all these leading European Powers met in one of those arbitrary Congresses, which dispose of peoples as if they were so many puppets in the hands of players. In this London Convention of 1852, the ancient Constitution of the Duchies and the unquenchable desires of the people for independence were calmly trampled under foot. The two provinces were separated from one another, and with Denmark and Lauenburg were united -- each of the four separately -- under one King and one Parliament. The King who was to be thus summarily placed over the Duchies, was Prince CHRISTIAN, of Glucksburg, father of the present Princess of Wales, whose male heirs were to govern forever the four provinces. The Emperor of Russia at the same time resigned all his claims to the Duchies in favor of the Prince of Glucksburg. This Convention determined the present condition of Denmark, and may force France and England into an armed asssistance of the Danish King against the Duchies and against Germany.

The fatal objection to it -- and one which no English Constitutionalist ought for a moment to overlook -- is that the people of the Duchies and their Legislature were not consulted at all in this disposition of their Government and their future. If they now oppose any such union with Denmark, to enforce it would be entirely contrary to the avowed policy of England and to the principles which France has maintained in Italy with so much expense and bloodshed. The Duchies have been oppressed and wronged by the Kingdom of Denmark in ways without number. It is well known, for instance, that there is not in any town or village of Schleswig at this time any voter of influence who has not been prosecuted for voting contrary to Danish orders. Every office is filled with Danes; even patriotic clergymen and schoolmasters are replaced by supple and submissive Danish incumbents, who will train the people to obey implicitly the Danish authority. The people of both Schleswig and Holstein -- either speaking German or of German descent -- feel as American emigrants used to feel in New-Mexico or California -- that they should belong to the great nationality which was united with them in blood. They entertain no pride or affection for petty Denmark. They belong to the German "Fatherland." Holstein is already a member of the German Confederacy. Both Duchies desire to be.

Such aspirations of nationality are not to be sneered at -- least of all by Americans, who know the power and the benefit of a vast united people. The German Confederacy never gave their consent to the pacts of 1852, and they ought not now to suffer the oppression of one of their own States by a foreign Power, acting under these Conventions.

A united Germany, stretching from Russia to the keys of the Baltic, with the means and the capacity of forming a naval Power, is a far better guarantee for the peace and the welfare of Europe, than a Germany split up and disunited, and a petty kingdom on its borders, at once the creation and the tool of arbitrary and unconstitutional diplomacy.

A version of this archives appears in print on December 12, 1863, on Page 6 of the New York edition with the headline: The Schleswig-Holstein Question. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe